Mali hotel attack victim worked to improve global health

WASHINGTON -- As a Peace Corps volunteer, expert in global health and the mother of a young boy, Anita Ashok Datar devoted her life to caring for and helping others, her family said.

Datar, of Takoma Park, Maryland, was one of at least 20 people killed in Friday's terror attack on a hotel in Mali, the State Department confirmed in a statement.

No other U.S. citizens were believed to have died in the attack, carried out by heavily armed Islamic extremists at a Radisson hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako.

"We are devastated that Anita is gone," her family said in a statement issued through the State Department. "It's unbelievable to us that she has been killed in this senseless act of violence and terrorism."

Datar, 41, was a senior manager at Palladium Group, an international development organization with offices in Washington, her family said. As a public health expert, she focused on family planning and HIV issues, work that took her to Africa often in the past 15 years. She also worked in Asia and South America, according to her LinkedIn profile.

"Everything she did in her life she did to help others - as a mother, public health expert, daughter, sister and friend," the family statement said. "And while we are angry and saddened that she has been killed, we know that she would want to promote education and healthcare to prevent violence and poverty at home and abroad, not intolerance."

The family said that of all her accomplishments, Datar was "most proud of her son." Her Facebook page is filled with pictures of the boy.

Born in Massachusetts, Datar grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers, her family said. She worked in Senegal with the Peace Corps for more than two years and earned master's degrees in public health and public administration from Columbia.

In addition to her son, parents and a brother, she is survived by "many, many friends around the world," the statement said.

Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted about the attack late Friday.

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